Followers

Saturday, July 21, 2012

I try not to judge people. I think I do a pretty good job on the matter. I don't care if you went to college, if you're gay, if you're a soldier, or an artist who paints things that, on the inside, I hate, if you're Christian or Muslim or anything in-between, if you're politically opposite me, poor or rich, if you like me or not. I don't care because everyone's entitled to their opinion. Everyone is entitled to live life as they see fit. So long as it doesn't endanger or damage others.

But I've been doing a lot of thinking recently and I don't want to start some sort of horrendous debate where people say awful things and get mad and I end up deleting the post, but I have to get this off my chest.

During the recent tragedy in CO, at least one person who was caught in the line of fire did something horrible. He has admitted what he did to several news stations. In personal interviews.

In the middle of all the shooting, and the killing and dying, this man laid his 4 month old child on the ground, and ran away. HE LAID HIS 4 MONTH OLD CHILD ON THE GROUND AND RAN AWAY. At the same time, he abandoned his girlfriend and his 4 year old daughter.

Obviously people have reacted to this occurrence. Understandably, in a negative way. As much because this man has been interviewed on live television, and during the interviews, he readily admitted that he set the baby down because 'he was crying and I thought 'that gunman is going to hear him and come get me' and then he readily admitted that he got in his car and drove away from the scene, only returning when his girlfriend (who managed to reclaim her 4 month old son, and then escape with both children) called him. Meanwhile, the girlfriend had shrapnel embedded the entire length of her leg.

I have commented on several people's FB posts remarking on the actions of this man. In a negative fashion.

Here's the big kicker where I really get frustrated:

People have commented back on EVERY post, DEFENDING the man. With very high minded and self-important tones, these people snidely pointed out that we have no right to judge this man because we don't know what we would do if put in his situation. Besides the fact that I would like to snidely inform these commenters (although I have mostly refrained, because I don't want to look like an ass) that THEY do not have any right to judge ME because they neither know me, nor what I would do in that situation, I would also like to point out to them, that they are defending a man who pretty much threw a baby into oncoming gunfire. Let's think about this. THREW A BABY INTO ONCOMING GUNFIRE. But hey, it's okay, because, you know, the guy was terrified. And everyone knows it's okay to set your baby on the floor and bolt like a bat out of hell if you're terrified.

I understand that I have never been shot at in a theater. I also understand that I would die, DIE, to protect my niece. Or any other child for that matter. If I'm ever forced to prove this fact, I imagine you'll read about it in the papers. There are a lot of things you can't know for sure in this world. but some, you can. And I know that it is not, under ANY circumstances, okay for you to set a 4 month old baby on the ground in the middle of a shootout and leave it there. Period.

People who think what this guy did was acceptable just because he was terrified and the shit was hitting the fan need to also stand up and announce that they think it was okay for Nazi soldiers to help butcher millions of Jews because, hey, at least a portion of those soldiers were young, and their families were threatened with death if they didn't join the regime.

Right.

HELL. NO. Not 'right'.

Wrong.

On every level. Even if they did what they did to protect their families, that doesn't make it okay. One doesn't balance the other.

I don't go around saying every person who served under Hitler deserves to burn in hell. I wasn't there. I didn't have to choose between watching my family get killed and helping kill other people's families. And I hope to God I never have to. But I don't go around saying it's okay that they did what they did, because it's not.

I'm not saying that this man deserves to burn in hell. I'm not his judge. But I'm not going to smooth over what he did and say it's okay either. Because it's not.

There comes a time when you have to hold people accountable. You are the master of your ship. If you do something horrible, then you did something horrible. Heroes are the people who do what's right, what SHOULD be done, when there's no one there to see. And fiends are the people who, in that moment where they can choose between doing what's right, and doing what best serves themselves, choose the latter. If it's okay for this man to leave his children and his wife behind, why isn't it okay for firefighters to stand outside your burning house instead of saving you? There isn't a lot of wiggle room in this for me.

I don't understand, in a country where heroes reign in books and on the big screen, why at least some of the public feels the need to defend a man who was willing to sacrifice his 4 month old child to the mercy of a crazed gunman. I just don't understand that mentality. It's our job as human beings to protect each other. But not to make excuses for bad behavior. Boys not old enough to legally drink or even vote have fought and died for this country because it was the right thing to do. Not because they weren't terrified of dying.

Okay, rant over, and feel free to post a comment with your opinion on it. But I won't be debating this in crazy fashion. And if you're hateful, I will delete the comment, or even the entire post. I don't wish death and destruction on this man. I'm not on a hate campaign. I'm glad he and his family survived. And I hope they all have good lives. I just needed to post and this has been on my mind since the tragedy happened.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men should do nothing - Unknown

5 comments:

I am right behind you on this one,I could not ever leave my child behind to save myself.Its cold and selfish and goes against everything mother nature put in us to preserve life and protect our young.I will not defend a man who in the direst of times bailed on his family out of fear,Once you choose to have a child its no longer about you anymore.Its about the well being of that child always. I would like to think in that situation I would have charged that psycho and done everything I could to snap his neck before he put a fatal bullet in me.I was raised that a man protects his family always,even in fear.This man showed his yellow belly and ran like a coward.

I am a mom so I am right there with you. I won't defend him. He is a coward and an ass. But I refuse to give him more then a passing thought. Instead, I have read all the accounts of people going out of their way to shield their loved ones; those who died so someone else could live. That's what I have chosen to focus on, to reinvigorate my my fundamental believe that humanity is essentially good."

And Trisha, those people who died, they're part of the reason I got so agry over the defense of this man. He seemed to get SO much media attention for having 'survived' even though he survived by abandoning those he supposedly loved, while stories like that of a man who lost his best friend because that friend was trying to help this guy shield his wife, got overlooked. And then once it became clear that the ass had acted like an ASS and people started condemning him, there was such an outcry over 'don't judge' and 'don't compare him with other survivors' that I couldn't stand it and had to say something.

I often ask friends if they would steal food if they were hungry. They almost always say yes. Just to piss 'em off, I call them a thief.

In my opinion, people who behave a certain way in extreme situations behave mostly the same way when faced with minor choices. A thief may justify stealing for a variety of reasons, but they'd still be a thief. The example of cowardice you wrote about disgusts me. I agree with you a hundred percent.

Those that say that no one knows how they would react in extreme circumstances are blind to basic human nature. If an accident occurred on the corner, some would rush to help, even if the car was on fire. Most would probably watch. I think we all have a moral compass that points true. I don't blame those that are afraid, but laying helpless child down to run away is the sign of a true coward.